EXLIBRIS  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


JOHN  HEW  NASH  JBRARY 


SAN  FRANCISCO 

PRESENTED  TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

ROBERT  GORDON  SPROUL,  PRESIDENT. 
BY 


MR.ANDMRS.MILTON  S.RAY 
CECILY,  VIRGINIA  AND  ROSALYN  RAY 

AND  THE 

RAY  OIL  BURNER  COMPANY 


LITTLE  WILLIE  BY  EUGENE  FIELD 


SAN  FRANCISCO 
PRIVATELY  PRINTED 

1921 


This  edition  comprising  two  hundred  copies  was  printed 
by  John  Henry  Nash  of  San  Francisco  for  Louis  A.  Kohn 
of  Chicago  in  Oftober,  Nineteen  Hundred  &  Twenty -one. 


HEN  Willie  was  a  little  boy 

Not  more  than  five  or  six, 
Right  constantly  he  did  annoy 

His  mother  with  hu  tricks. 
Yet  not  a  picayune  cared  I 

For  what  he  did  or  said. 
Unless,  as  happened  frequently, 

The  rascal  wet  the  bed. 


LOSELY  he  cuddled  up  to  me 

And  put  hh  hands  in  mine, 
Till  all  at  once  I  seemed  to  be 

Afloat  in  seas  of  brine. 
Sabean  odors  clogged  the  air 

And  filled  my  soul  with  dread} 
Yet  I  could  only  grin  and  bear 

When  Willie  wet  the  bed. 


IS  many  times  that  rascal  has 

Soaked  all  the  bedclothes  through, 
Whereat  Td feebly  light  the  gas 

And  wonder  what  to  do. 
Yet  there  he  lay,  so  peaceful  like; 

God  bless  hi*  curly  head, 
I  quite  for  gave  the  little  tyke 

For  wetting  of  the  bed. 


H  me  !  those  happy  days  have  flown, 

My  boy 's  a  father  too, 
And  little  Willies  of  his  own 

Do  what  he  wed  to  do. 
And  I,  ah,  all  that 's  left  for  me 

Are  dreams  of  pleasures  fled; 
Our  boys  ain  't  what  they  used  to  be 

When  Willie  wet  the  bed. 


AD  /  my  choice  no  shapely  dame 

Should  share  my  couch  with  me, 
No  amorous  jade  oftarnhhedfame, 

No  wench  of  high  degree. 
But  I  would  choose  and  choose  again 

The  little  curly  head, 
Who  cuddled  close  beside  me  when 

He  wed  to  wet  the  bed. 


NOTE :  Mr.  Field  said  that  his  wife  took  the  boy  away 
on  a  visit,  and  he  found  in  their  absence  he  couldn't 
deep  till  he  got  up  and  poured  water  on  his  nightshirt. 


